Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on Jul 21, 2021 15:25:58 GMT 1
Billionaire Dangote Can’t Get Enough Fresh Tomatoes to Run Plant Profitably: Reason For Understanding Tomato Farming In Nigeria
We just wrote an article on how to start lucrative tomato farming in Nigeria recently, and it has been trending that The Dangote tomato plant owned by Sani Dangote, the immediate younger brother of the richest man in Africa could not get enough fresh tomatoes to operate his factory to profitable capacity.
How do we explain that Africa’s biggest tomato processing plant is barely managing to operate profitably; six years after the factory began production it can’t still get adequate fresh tomatoes to crush in order to remain profitably in operation?
The plant has a capacity of about 1,200 metric tonnes of tomato per day; but it is producing at 20% of capacity because farmers don’t have enough resources to boost production of the scarce commodity
The factory was meant to reverse Nigeria’s dependence on imports of tomato paste from China and increase local production. This action was to not only increase production of the product locally but to provide massive employment opportunities to the community.
The major essence of the Dangote plant was to help Africa’s most populous nation cut 300,000 tons of tomato-paste imports from China. But the country is still having an estimated 900,000 tons of tomatoes lost locally every year due to a lack of storage and processing facilities.
While tomato farming employs an estimated 200,000 people, banks balk at lending to farmers despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s focus on boosting local production. Such long-term policy missteps, entrenched corruption and ethnic tensions are discouraging investments needed to add jobs in a nation suffering from one of the world’s highest unemployment rates.
About 10, 000 tomato growers were to benefit from the Federal Government under the Anchor Borrowers’ programme one year ago, but what became of it is not clear as at today.
How do we key into the current situation as current farmers of tomato or intending farmers?
Let us go into the real farming of tomato while continuing with our part 2 of the article series.
Does it not surprise you, the farmers are there, the factory is there, and above all the market is also there to absorb all your finished products, but the commodities are not there for the factory to use.
How To Grow Tomatoes
Tomato farming in Nigeria is not as difficult as people make it to sound, this business can be done by anybody who is interested in doing it. You can actually plant tomato in your compound or in a large farmland if you want to go into commercial production.
Interestingly you can grow tomato all through the year, especially in areas where irrigation project has been installed and maintained. But if you are living in areas of the country where there is no irrigation, then you can cultivate your tomato farm during the rainy season.
Pick The Tomato Specie To Use
The specie you should use must be the improved specie which of course is the best choice for many experienced or knowledgeable farmers.
The Roma tomato variety is the best specie to be used; it will give you the best result at harvest. It is also known as Italian tomatoes. This tomato specie has a long shelf life, hard back, and low water content; this enables it to last long after harvest. The seeds can be found in agricultural shops in town, if you do not know of any of the shops, ask around and you will be shown.
The advantage of this specie is that you can use it for both canning and producing tomato paste. Tomato paste is gulping a lot of foreign exchange from Nigeria.
Tips For Growing Roma Tomato
Just like we said earlier, roma tomato is a paste tomato; paste tomatoes generally have thicker fruit walls, fewer seeds and denser flesh. They tend to be oblong in shape, firm and heavy for their size.
Like other tomato species, roma tomato plants need plenty of water, soil rich in organic materials. They need to be staked off the ground in order to get the best fruit production.
You have to prepare the soil for making your tomato bed by adding compost or slow-release fertilizer. After planting your roma tomato, water them at least once a week. Immediately the plants are up to 15-30 cm high, star staking the roma tomatoes up off the ground.
Roma tomato plants can withstand a lot of diseases that destroy other tomato plants easily.
Once the roma tomato is red all through from bottom to the top, you can start picking your tomatoes.
To solve the scarcity of tomatoes in Nigeria currently, roma tomatoes are the best to start cultivating.
Stay with us as we will be bringing more information about tomatoes to our members.
Don’t forget that we are the best in export training, get in touch with our Admin for more details on our various training programmes
We just wrote an article on how to start lucrative tomato farming in Nigeria recently, and it has been trending that The Dangote tomato plant owned by Sani Dangote, the immediate younger brother of the richest man in Africa could not get enough fresh tomatoes to operate his factory to profitable capacity.
How do we explain that Africa’s biggest tomato processing plant is barely managing to operate profitably; six years after the factory began production it can’t still get adequate fresh tomatoes to crush in order to remain profitably in operation?
The plant has a capacity of about 1,200 metric tonnes of tomato per day; but it is producing at 20% of capacity because farmers don’t have enough resources to boost production of the scarce commodity
The factory was meant to reverse Nigeria’s dependence on imports of tomato paste from China and increase local production. This action was to not only increase production of the product locally but to provide massive employment opportunities to the community.
The major essence of the Dangote plant was to help Africa’s most populous nation cut 300,000 tons of tomato-paste imports from China. But the country is still having an estimated 900,000 tons of tomatoes lost locally every year due to a lack of storage and processing facilities.
While tomato farming employs an estimated 200,000 people, banks balk at lending to farmers despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s focus on boosting local production. Such long-term policy missteps, entrenched corruption and ethnic tensions are discouraging investments needed to add jobs in a nation suffering from one of the world’s highest unemployment rates.
About 10, 000 tomato growers were to benefit from the Federal Government under the Anchor Borrowers’ programme one year ago, but what became of it is not clear as at today.
How do we key into the current situation as current farmers of tomato or intending farmers?
Let us go into the real farming of tomato while continuing with our part 2 of the article series.
Does it not surprise you, the farmers are there, the factory is there, and above all the market is also there to absorb all your finished products, but the commodities are not there for the factory to use.
How To Grow Tomatoes
Tomato farming in Nigeria is not as difficult as people make it to sound, this business can be done by anybody who is interested in doing it. You can actually plant tomato in your compound or in a large farmland if you want to go into commercial production.
Interestingly you can grow tomato all through the year, especially in areas where irrigation project has been installed and maintained. But if you are living in areas of the country where there is no irrigation, then you can cultivate your tomato farm during the rainy season.
Pick The Tomato Specie To Use
The specie you should use must be the improved specie which of course is the best choice for many experienced or knowledgeable farmers.
The Roma tomato variety is the best specie to be used; it will give you the best result at harvest. It is also known as Italian tomatoes. This tomato specie has a long shelf life, hard back, and low water content; this enables it to last long after harvest. The seeds can be found in agricultural shops in town, if you do not know of any of the shops, ask around and you will be shown.
The advantage of this specie is that you can use it for both canning and producing tomato paste. Tomato paste is gulping a lot of foreign exchange from Nigeria.
Tips For Growing Roma Tomato
Just like we said earlier, roma tomato is a paste tomato; paste tomatoes generally have thicker fruit walls, fewer seeds and denser flesh. They tend to be oblong in shape, firm and heavy for their size.
Like other tomato species, roma tomato plants need plenty of water, soil rich in organic materials. They need to be staked off the ground in order to get the best fruit production.
You have to prepare the soil for making your tomato bed by adding compost or slow-release fertilizer. After planting your roma tomato, water them at least once a week. Immediately the plants are up to 15-30 cm high, star staking the roma tomatoes up off the ground.
Roma tomato plants can withstand a lot of diseases that destroy other tomato plants easily.
Once the roma tomato is red all through from bottom to the top, you can start picking your tomatoes.
To solve the scarcity of tomatoes in Nigeria currently, roma tomatoes are the best to start cultivating.
Stay with us as we will be bringing more information about tomatoes to our members.
Don’t forget that we are the best in export training, get in touch with our Admin for more details on our various training programmes
